‘Neurotech revolution’ is already here and it may leave you hopeful—or scratching your head 

If somebody had predicted a technological fiction would materialize, neurotechnology would be the last one to pop in mind. Not because it is impossible, but because it challenges the limits of what technology can achieve in the human body—yet here we are.

Over the past two decades, research and innovations in the field of neurotechnology have advanced at breakneck speed, says the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), hence the term “neurotech revolution” gaining traction in the science community.

Neurotechnology, an umbrella term for a wide range of technological innovations aimed at monitoring and modulating the nervous system, has evolved from simply being able to record brain signals to being able to read and stimulate neural activity of an individual.

“It offers promising benefits, particularly in medicine: deep brain stimulation alleviates the symptoms of disorders such as depression and Parkinson’s disease, and brain-computer interfaces enable people with disabilities to control prosthetics or communicate through thought,” UNESCO said in its press release.

This medical promise has driven ventures in the past few years to concentrate on neural innovations, especially brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), which can translate brain signals into commands to control an external device such as a prosthetic or any machine.

IT WILL ‘ALL BE IN YOUR HEAD’ SOON

While neurotechnologies have no universally defined classifications in the medical field, BCIs can be broadly described as invasive, semi-invasive, or non-invasive.

Non-invasive neuro-devices detect and stimulate the brain outside the body, such as neuroimaging of electroencephalography (EEG) where it detects electrical activity of the brain, whereas semi-invasive devices involve implanting, but only on the surface of the brain, such as how electrocorticography (ECoG) records electrical activity from the electrodes placed on the surface of an individual’s brain.

Invasive BCIs, on the other hand, need to be surgically embedded into specific areas of the brain, which includes the recently mentioned Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) that involves implanting electrodes connected to a pulse generator to regulate abnormal brain activity through controlled electrical signals.

“[It] has great potential to help people with neurological disorders in future and is an excellent example of how fundamental neuroscience research is being harnessed for medical advances,”said Professor Tara Spires-Jones, president of the British Neuroscience Association.

One such example of how BCIs’ potential has been put to use is the study of Alexander Silva, Jessie Liu, and his colleagues, which enabled a bilingual study participant with vocal and limb paralysis to communicate in both Spanish and English through recording from hundreds of individual neurons using electrocorticography.

Research on BCIs’ has also allowed individuals who can no longer speak intelligibly decode speech at speeds of 62 words per minute, approaching natural conversation rates. 

While the data has shown promising results in assisting patients with neurological illnesses, neurotechnology has become the next emerging technology, after artificial intelligence (AI), to generate international concern about ethical risks and unintended consequences.

NEUROTECHS FLYING OVER ETHICS

“One of the main problems is privacy,” said University of Sussex Neuroscience professor Anil Seth. “So if we are exporting our brain activity […] then we are kind of allowing access to not just what we do but potentially what we think, what we believe and what we feel.”

The ethics in keeping and using neural data have been the concern of experts, especially knowing that retention of raw data from patients is crucial because of its potential to fuel future technological advancements.

“Our innermost thoughts are under threat,” Chneiweiss said. “For example, neurotech data could fall into the hands of your boss, who could then decide that you are not spending enough time thinking about work.”

Such global outcry on the safety of neural data has happened before in a primary school near Shanghai, China, where electroencephalography headbands were reportedly used to measure the brain activity of children during classes—raising concerns among parents about their children’s privacy, which has led to its complete ban.

Aside from the tricky ethics surrounding this emerging technology, experts have also discovered that there are simple mistakes or unintended consequences from these procedures.

Researchers at the University of Zurich discovered that Parkinson’s disease patients who had received brain implants, specifically deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus to control their tremors, lost their abilities to swim, despite them being proficient swimmers before the operation. 

In turn, UNESCO adopts its first global standard for neurotechnology, which includes emphasizing the need for explicit, affirmative consent and full transparency in all applications of neurotechnology; strict prohibition of using neurotechnology for employee performance evaluation, punitive measures, or any non-health context; and restricting its use on children and vulnerable groups, unless for therapeutic enhancements.

“When it comes to neurotechnology, we cannot afford this risk.” said Marcello Ienca, Deputy Director of the Center for Ethics and History of Medicine at Technical University of Munich (TUM). “Technologies that interfere with our brains have great potential. But their ethical implications are such that they may require an expansion of human rights frameworks.”

BRAIN IS THE NEW FRONTIER

Despite the dilemma in fully embracing neurotechnology to the betterment of life amid ethical concern, neuroscience professor and neurorights advocate Rafael Yuste emphasized that technology is neutral—it is on people to make sure that technology is for the benefit of mankind

Rampant ‘misleading propaganda’ with BCIs that are still in the ‘infancy stage’ have also been called out by scientists, as this dramatically inflates or deflates the public‘s perception on the future of neurotechnologies.

“I think that neurotechnology will lead to a new renaissance in our history. We have to go full speed ahead–because of the patients, who look us in the eye every day and say ‘Will you help me?’–and we have to do it with guard-rails, with intelligence,” Yuste said.

Yes, neurotechnology is no longer a science fiction written in books and played in movies, but a real frontier where medicine, ethics, industry, and human identity all intersect—a revolution where humanity is tested on how far it is willing to go.